BUSINESS AND TRAINING
49
Specialist equipment: rent or own?
Renting or owning specialised equipment is a decision that can be looked at in
a number of ways, and both options have a variety of factors to consider.
By Octopus Electronics
Renting or owning equipment each has
different effects on a business and is rarely a
simple choice. Whether you are a municipality
or a contractor, the decision can alter how you
do business and your growth opportunities.
In today’s current business environment, it is
becoming essential to position your business
to accommodate what the markets require, and
that includes the right equipment.
Some considerations that may affect the decision are:
• How essential is the equipment to the
functioning of your business or achieving your
business planning?
• What does your financial position cater for?
• What portion of your business will the
equipment be used for?
• Are you a specialist in a particular type
of work?
• Do you intend to keep up with technology or
just want to be able to offer an extra service?
RENTING
Depending on your business services and strategy,
an advantage of renting can be to have an effective
means of controlling costs. This comes into play
when you are working on a per-job basis. It also
has the benefit of trying out new services for your
business to offer a broader service range, or to
allow a business to remain competitive before any
major capital outlays are made. You may choose
rental as the correct option for your business
requirement as the operational structure of your
permanent service offering.
Equipment is also constantly evolving, so today’s
technology may be obsolete in as short as a
few months to a year and so renting equipment
passes that burden onto the rental company.
This has been one of the major perceptions
influencing the decision to rent rather than own
specialist equipment.
With so many substandard products in the market,
it is important to keep in mind the choice made in
terms of quality brands, guarantees, or warranties.
REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE
With either choice of renting or owning, there is also
the consideration of repairs and maintenance, as
well as availability of spares for a fast turnaround
time. It often happens, as you may have experienced,
when you buy equipment that soon afterwards
becomes redundant, spares are no longer available
OWNING
or will take extended time to source by not having
Ownership allows complete control over your
sufficient support structures. It is therefore also
equipment. You can maintain your own standards
important that this forms part of your considerations.
of service and ensure you are always ready on
Cutting corners in service maintenance holds equal
standby when required, without delays of waiting
importance, because you do not want to be incurring
for equipment availability. It also gives you the
additional costs or ups and downs to swop units, in
opportunity to buy specific, exact models, modules
or attachments according to your business services. addition to the allocated time frames causing delays,
which equates to lost money.
Purchasing equipment outright also holds a
potential benefit of tax credits through depreciation ADDITIONAL SERVICES
of the asset. This matter, as with other tax
In terms of value add, options are available to
implications, should always be discussed with
support customers through software analysis of the
your accountant or tax professional if this could be data collected during the inspections — a rental
applicable to you or your business.
of software, so to speak. It may be common that
the user does not understand the data. Training,
In taking a long-term view, owning equipment also whether for rental or ownership, is another element
of value add as users need to know how the
allows cost-saving opportunities, as a rental rate
would include fees for maintenance, repairs, and so equipment works to maximise use of the tools and
on. Some negative aspects possibly include parting functions. Training can take from as little as a few
hours to a full day for more complex models — all
with capital, equipment being outdated quickly, as
necessary to streamline services to your customers.
well as downtime due to repairs or maintenance
required, taking your service out of action.
Some of the downsides to rental may include
matters such as over- or under-specified units,
or possible delays through having to wait for the
availability of units.
QUALITY
As with so many products and the highly
competitive environment, quality and reliability are
important whether you choose to rent or to own.
Extracts from Sewer Cameras: Rent, Lease or Buy?
by Venay Sehgal Bhatia at Envirosight. This article is
edited and adapted from the original version. PA